Low GPA? Me too. (2.9) Here's where to apply:

Congratulations！ At least your GRE is not bad!

when did you apply? I am a slightly higher gpa but still on the cusp for most schools. I was rejected from LIU and havent heard anything from anyone else..im starting to get nervous

DPT hopeful said:

when did you apply? I am a slightly higher gpa but still on the cusp for most schools. I was rejected from LIU and havent heard anything from anyone else..im starting to get nervous

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Hey DPT hopeful. When did you submit PTCAS. I got my acceptance from Touro on Nov 4th via email and a week later via hard copy. Did you get to interview at Temple?

I applied to TJU also and we will not hear from them until April or March lol. I should hear if I got waitlisted or rejected from Temple this coming week. (Notice how I didn't mention accepted)

Thanks for the post - I would also like to know when you applied and hear from NYIT and midwestern?
I applied to both and haven't heard anything from them other than that they received my application

i would like to know as well about NYIT, when did you submit ur app and when did they accepted you ? Was there an interview process ?

JBizzle-PTCAS was submitted on 9/11 and sent to schools on 10/4 (i believe). All schools have acknowledged my applications but have not heard word from most.

i'm curious.. did you have interviews at any of the ones that were rejected?

Did you interview with UConn? I did my undergrad there, and have a standing offer for a grad assistant position...my prerequisite GPA is a 3.01 but my Masters was a 4.0. If I don't get into UCF (Central Florida) I was thinking of moving back to Connecticut (pending an acceptance to UConn, of course!!)

CJonesrun said:

... and have a standing offer for a grad assistant position...

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I'd kill for an assistantship.

markelmarcel said:

I'd kill for an assistantship.

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They're a rare bird in the PT world from the searching I've done, but they do exist some places. Most that do get a good amount of funding grants like Univ of Conn.

hefe said:

They're a rare bird in the PT world from the searching I've done, but they do exist some places. Most that do get a good amount of funding grants like Univ of Conn.

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None of the schools I applied to had them, there are a *few* scholarship potential opportunities. I'll just have to cross my fingers that maybe I'll get a one-time of a couple thousand-- anything helps, right?

They offer grad assistantships at my school, but I am not sure I want one. The pay is decent at $10 per hour for 10 hours per week. The problem is that you are liable to be doing things like filing, sorting, etc...

I am unsure at the moment if I want to give up 2 hours a day of studying time, hanging out with classmate time, or hanging out with my wife time.

Sorry guys, I didn't mean to make it sound like a PT assistantship. As an undergrad, I worked in a few student services and admissions office and have maintained relationships with many of those people for more than 15 years. They knew me as a hard worker, and have a few different options for grad assistants in those departments which they have told me would be available should I decide to try to do PT there. The problem would be finding a place to live, with my husband, and relocating. My husband is also in school and it would mean disrupting a lot more for him to move than for me.

If you're willing to live in housing, there are a lot of graduate positions in res life that include free room and board, full or partial tuition and a stipend. They do have married housing at a lot of campuses now. But I worked in res life as an undergrad, and you need to have a high tolerance for stupid behavior. I definitely got over my fear of confrontation and learned a lot about dealing with people, but I also cleaned a lot of puke.

Hmm my GPA is a 2.62 cumulative (2.8-2.9 pre-req for different schools) and I'm a senior and though its extremely low something in my bones keep telling me to apply! I'm considering these schools.

Touro-Nevada
Langston University
Seton Hall
Western University
University of Findlay
Dominican

Haven't taken the GRE yet.

I believe a lot of PT schools have assistantships, they are just not available to the first year students.

So it looks like no one has posted on this in a while but i am in this same situation myself. It took me all the way to my very last semester to pull my GPA up to a 3.01. The GRE has changed now but from what I am seeing my scores are right around the average acceptance scores. I also have about 350 volunteer hours and continue to do so currently.

I notice some of you said to explain your gpa situation in the interview. But is telling them that you didnt do well early in school a valid reason? My gpa was above a 3.2 my whole senior year which is where i took most of my kinesiology anyway.

Ive already been rejected by Scranton, East Carolina and Jefferson. Waiting to hear from Wiedner and St Augustine. Hopefully the delays are a good thing but I'm starting to get nervous

I know this forum is old but I am loving the info. Currently looking into the PTA or PT program. I am in my junior year ~3.2 pre req & ~3.1 overall but have not completed undergrad yet. I have 165 hours so far in Inpatient, Peds and SNF.

The reason I was thinking about PTA was because of my low GPA, but I've also heard PTA is a tough acceptance now too. Anyone have advice on if I have a shot at either program? I want to stay in Florida if possible, does anyone who has gone to any of the FL programs have any advice? Also, I have not taken the GRE yet and was wondering what a solid score would be to make up for my GPA.

Thanks!

PTjimmy said:

So it looks like no one has posted on this in a while but i am in this same situation myself. It took me all the way to my very last semester to pull my GPA up to a 3.01. The GRE has changed now but from what I am seeing my scores are right around the average acceptance scores. I also have about 350 volunteer hours and continue to do so currently.

I notice some of you said to explain your gpa situation in the interview. But is telling them that you didnt do well early in school a valid reason? My gpa was above a 3.2 my whole senior year which is where i took most of my kinesiology anyway.

Ive already been rejected by Scranton, East Carolina and Jefferson. Waiting to hear from Wiedner and St Augustine. Hopefully the delays are a good thing but I'm starting to get nervous

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Don't get nervous. I applied to St. Augustine last Spring to get into their program for January of this year. My GPA is about the same as yours...according to PTCAS. However, since they do not use PTCAS I think they may look at GPA's a little differently. My pre-req GPA is much higher that my overall GPA. I interviewed with them last August, but I did not get accepted. It worked out in my favor though. I was not financially prepared to attend St. Augustine. I am waiting to hear from other schools now.

GPA isn't everything. I had a GPA similar to you and got accepted/waitlisted to many top schools. Keep your head up and remember it's the whole package that counts.

Dancefeva512 said:

Don't get nervous. I applied to St. Augustine last Spring to get into their program for January of this year. My GPA is about the same as yours...according to PTCAS. However, since they do not use PTCAS I think they may look at GPA's a little differently. My pre-req GPA is much higher that my overall GPA. I interviewed with them last August, but I did not get accepted. It worked out in my favor though. I was not financially prepared to attend St. Augustine. I am waiting to hear from other schools now.

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So I actually didnt end up getting into any of the schools that i applied to and listed on this forum. Shortly after this was made official I landed a job at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania as a research technician in surgical pathology. While not very relevent experience, UPenn is the on of the top hospitals in the country and looks great on a resume. However I am still looking for a PT job to gain more hours. I also plan on taking the GRE again and applying as early as possible to through PTCAS. My question is which schools would be best to apply to for my situation? I hear that schools out west have lower standards and may accept people like me. If anyone has some info please let me know.

And I see ads for the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia. That would work well for me. Does anyone know about their standards??

PTjimmy said:

So I actually didnt end up getting into any of the schools that i applied to and listed on this forum. Shortly after this was made official I landed a job at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania as a research technician in surgical pathology. While not very relevent experience, UPenn is the on of the top hospitals in the country and looks great on a resume. However I am still looking for a PT job to gain more hours. I also plan on taking the GRE again and applying as early as possible to through PTCAS. My question is which schools would be best to apply to for my situation? I hear that schools out west have lower standards and may accept people like me. If anyone has some info please let me know.

And I see ads for the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia. That would work well for me. Does anyone know about their standards??

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Lets say "lower requirements" not "lower Standards". thanks..... Try A.T. Stills campuses, Mid Western campuses, UNLV, Touro Campuses, PTCAS / APTA has a listing comparing all schools requirements. There are also more schools starting up, those with pending accreditation may accept students w/ lower qualifiers.
However I understand the competition is increasing each year.

PTjimmy said:

So I actually didnt end up getting into any of the schools that i applied to and listed on this forum. Shortly after this was made official I landed a job at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania as a research technician in surgical pathology. While not very relevent experience, UPenn is the on of the top hospitals in the country and looks great on a resume. However I am still looking for a PT job to gain more hours. I also plan on taking the GRE again and applying as early as possible to through PTCAS. My question is which schools would be best to apply to for my situation? I hear that schools out west have lower standards and may accept people like me. If anyone has some info please let me know.

And I see ads for the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia. That would work well for me. Does anyone know about their standards??

Click to expand...

PTjimmy said:

So I actually didnt end up getting into any of the schools that i applied to and listed on this forum. Shortly after this was made official I landed a job at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania as a research technician in surgical pathology. While not very relevent experience, UPenn is the on of the top hospitals in the country and looks great on a resume. However I am still looking for a PT job to gain more hours. I also plan on taking the GRE again and applying as early as possible to through PTCAS. My question is which schools would be best to apply to for my situation? I hear that schools out west have lower standards and may accept people like me. If anyone has some info please let me know.

And I see ads for the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia. That would work well for me. Does anyone know about their standards??

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Speaking as a PT who didn't get in her first try, don't give up if this is truly what you want to do. I realize school is different now, I have BS in PT, but it was still hard to get accepted with my 3.5GPA. I appreciate this forum and looked for it because my daughter has expressed an interest in PT school. Her HS grades were awful but feel that was related to a personal issue that I'll not bore you with the details. She is more focused now but less confident and undecided. Still growing up so I'm helping research the requirements. Can someone enlighten me what "PTCAS" is? Thanks

momandpt said:

Speaking as a PT who didn't get in her first try, don't give up if this is truly what you want to do. I realize school is different now, I have BS in PT, but it was still hard to get accepted with my 3.5GPA. I appreciate this forum and looked for it because my daughter has expressed an interest in PT school. Her HS grades were awful but feel that was related to a personal issue that I'll not bore you with the details. She is more focused now but less confident and undecided. Still growing up so I'm helping research the requirements. Can someone enlighten me what "PTCAS" is? Thanks

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Also, I have heard you can have a major in just about anything as long as you have the prereq courses. What are some majors that you are aware of that can get you a job if you are not accepted?

momandpt said:

Can someone enlighten me what "PTCAS" is? Thanks

Also, I have heard you can have a major in just about anything as long as you have the prereq courses. What are some majors that you are aware of that can get you a job if you are not accepted?

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PTCAS is the Physical Therapy Common Application System. It allows you to fill out one giant application and send it out to a large portion of the accredited schools throughout the country. This is a great thing and saves so much times and also makes it much easier for both you and your references and PTs you work under since you only have to get each form filled out once and have all your materials sent it once, but it will be forwarded to all the schools you select. This is not to say that you shouldn't apply to non-PTCAS schools, but it is a great time saver.

As for majors you can get a job in if you're not accepted, the only things that really come to mind are accounting or engineering. I'm sure there are others but those are the most obvious. It seems to me, most other majors will necessitate graduate school or will take a lot of networking and hard work to get a decent job.

Yaypt do you mind me asking which schools you were accepted to?

Just so you know this is a 3 year old thread, and yaypt has logged on since april.

yaypt said:

GPA isn't everything. I had a GPA similar to you and got accepted/waitlisted to many top schools. Keep your head up and remember it's the whole package that counts.

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What schools did you get accepted to/what kind of GPA did you have?

Liz1 said:

To my fellow DPT applicants:

There is hope for those of us with low GPAs. Most of these letters have come within the past 3 weeks.

Overall GPA: 3.1
Pre-Req GPA: 2.9
Major: Spanish
GRE: 1220

Acceptances: New York Institute of Technology and Touro DPT at the Bay Shore campus. I got interviews at U of St. Augustine and U of the Sciences in Philadelphia... turned them down because NYIT is my top choice school

Rejections: Univ of New England, NY Medical College(DPT program), Franklin Pierce, Temple, Bellarmine, Belmont, UVM, UConn, URI, Long Island U, Sacred Heart, University of Hartford, Husson, Chapman, Shenandoah, Drexel, Midwestern.

I wish everybody the best of luck with applications.

Sincerely,

Liz

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You've probably have graduate by now. How did you like NYIT?

I know this thread is quite a few years old. But has anyone had any luck get accepting into a DPT with a lower GPA, and pre req GPA ?

Take a look at this thread... older but still a start: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/thr...of-3-5-or-less-for-accepted-students.1096083/

DrSoul said:

I know this thread is quite a few years old. But has anyone had any luck get accepting into a DPT with a lower GPA, and pre req GPA ?

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Yes there are quite a few people I know who got accepted with low GPA. It's not impossible, just be prepared to apply more than once and persevere.

How you can do it!